如何在一个飞速变化的世界里精明地失败英语演讲稿(6)

　　Global is the new scale. We know that. And so people say things like, "The world is now a turbulent place." Have you heard them saying things like that? And they use it as a metaphor. Have you come across this?世界范围才是我们衡量的标准。我们都知道。于是乎有人就会说，“世界就像湍急的水流一样。”你们八成都听人说过类似的话吧？他们只是打个比方。你们遇到过没？

　　And they think it's a metaphor, but this is not a metaphor. It's reality. As a young engineering student, I remember going to a demonstration where they basically, the demonstrator did something quite intriguing. What he did was, he got a transparent pipe —have you seen this demonstration before?—he attached it to a tap. So effectively what you had was, you had a situation where—I'll try and draw the tap and the pipe, actually I'll skip the tap. The taps are hard. Okay? So I'll write the word "tap." Is that okay? It's a tap. (Laughter) Okay, so he attaches it to a transparent pipe, and he turns the water on. And he says, do you notice anything? And the water is whooshing down this pipe. I mean, this is not exciting stuff. Are you with me? So the water goes up. He turns it back down. Great. And he says, "Anything you notice?" No. Then he sticks a needle into the pipe, and he connects this to a container, and he fills the container up with green ink. You with me? So guess what happens? A thin green line comes out as it flows down the pipe. It's not that interesting. And then he turns the water up a bit, so it starts coming back in. And nothing changes. So he's changing the flow of the water, but it's just a boring green line. He adds some more. He adds some more. And then something weird happens. There's this little flicker, and then as he turns it ever so slightly more, the whole of that green line disappears, and instead there are these little sort of inky dust devils close to the needle. They're called eddies. Not me. And they're violently dispersing the ink so that it actually gets diluted out, and the color's gone.他们觉得自己是在打比方，但其实不然。现实就是如此。我年轻的时候曾学过工程学，我记得有次去参观一个作品展示会。基本上，作者使用了一些非常耐人寻味的手法。他是这么做的，首先准备一条透明的管子——你们以前见看过类似的没有？——管子连着水龙头。随后你就会看到，你们马上就会看到——我会尽量把水龙头画出来，当然包括管子，事实上我会略过水龙头。很难画出来。好吧？所以我写个单词“水龙头。”这样可以吧？就当是个是龙头了。（笑声）好的，水龙头接上一个透明的管子，随后打开水龙头。随后他说，你们发现什么有意思的东西没？水流嗖嗖的穿过管子。我知道，这一点也不好玩。你们还在听吗？所以水继续流。他关上龙头。终于解脱了。然后他又问道，“注意到什么了吗？”没有。然后他用针头刺进了管子里，并且用把管子和一个匣子连接在一起，在匣子里装满绿色的墨水。你还在听吗？猜猜发生了什么？一条细细的绿线出现了，随着绿线流过管子。这并不好玩。于是作者把水龙头开大了一点点，绿线还是在那。一点变化也没有。 随后他开始不停的捣鼓水龙头，那条无聊的绿线还是没有任何变化。水流越来越大。越来越急。不可思议的事情发生了。绿线开始有些时隐时现，然后随着水流的持续增大，绿线彻底消失了，与此同时，在针头附近出现了一些小小的被绿色墨水浸透的漩涡。他们被命名为艾迪。不是我哦。这些漩涡粗暴的把墨水打碎甩出去 因此绿色墨水渐渐被稀释掉，色彩消失了。